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zzz (on hiatus)

“Worse than thieves are ballad collectors, for when they capture and imprison in cold type a folk song, at the same time they kill it.” John Lomax, from the introduction to American Ballads and Folk Songs

“One of the reasons that Alan has made enemies is that he has done most of [...]

The judge held that the individual mandate exceeded the Commerce Clause power, and that the provision wasn’t severable– the whole act falls with it. All other claims were rejected. This makes four decisions, two (Michigan and W.D. Virginia) upholding the law and two (E.D. Virginia and this one) holding it unconstitutional.

CottonMouth points to a great resource– SeeTheSpending.org, where you can find out what various parts of state government spend, by category, department, or (most interestingly) vendor. Their website promises to put county, school, and city numbers up in the future.

CottonMouth learned of the degree to which the state is funding SuperTalk radio. The [...]

Dean Faulkner Wells is William Faulkner’s niece; her father died flying his brother William’s in the 1930s, just months before Dean Wells was born. She was raised in large part in William’s mother’s house (where she lives, now, on South Lamar in Oxford) and in and out of Rowan Oak.

Rep. Snowden, a Republican from Meridian, writes on a Clarion Ledger blog how the bill was passed and effectively killed at the same time. I hope hie’s right (although I don’t think this is exactly a Hobson’s choice):

Thomas Hobson rented horses from his 17th Century livery stable in Cambridge. In order to keep his “inventory” fresh and not over-used, the crafty Englishman rotated his stock, and made it his strict rule to rent only the horse in the nearest stall, which always was the most rested. Although forty mounts for hire might be stabled at any given time, a prospective customer was allowed to rent only the animal in the lead stall, or none at all.

A “Hobson’s Choice” offers only one viable option. In reality it is a “take it or leave it” proposition, and if there are multiple apparently available choices, they are mere illusions.

The Billy McCoy Democratic leadership adroitly dealt House Republicans a “Hobson’s Choice” last Thursday afternoon. With blinding speed, the Senate-passed, Arizona-style immigration enforcement bill was amended in the House Judiciary A committee and rushed out for a quick floor vote. Following a brief explanation and no debate, the amended bill passed the full House 77-40. All Republicans and most RWD’s (rural white Democrats) voted for the bill, with a handful of white Democrats joining the Black Caucus in opposition.

Sound fishy? It should. The House version of the bill, a 25-page (776 lines) “strike-all” amendment unveiled for the first time at the mid-afternoon Jud A committee meeting, was deliberately designed never to become law. While purporting to “crack down” on employers who knowingly break the law by hiring illegal aliens, in reality the House amendment could severely penalize even those Mississippi employers who in good faith try their best to comply with the law.

In a guest column in the Clarion Ledger, Congressman Bennie Thompson describes Gov. Barbour’s remarks about desegregation in Yazoo City and writes:

That response left many of us doubting his knowledge of our state’s bloody history and his commitment to overcoming the effects of that history. Gov. Barbour later offered up two symbolic gestures [...]

Recent Comments

Thus Blogged Anderson has an appropriate and kind suggestion in nominating Tom for an award through the Mississippi Bar. Anyone interested can view his post here: https://thusbloggedanderson.wordpress ..

I regret that my last post which he answered was a lame attempt to provoke a reaction. I'm very conservative and often thought I was cleverly pushing the debates along. I was not aware of any health p ..

What a terrible loss to Oxford. Tom was a sweetheart of a guy. He had a huge heart and a huge mind, the former of which ruled the later. Thanks, Plexix, for the link to the Clarion Ledger article abou ..